An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

12. תָ ֹתּ֫ חִ ה ַ וֹ ֑בּ שׂגֹנּ ֵ ה ַ טבֶ ֵשׁ ֫
׃ןָידְ מ ִ םוֹי ְכּ
13. ר֑ פָּ סְ ִמ יתֵ ְמ םתוֹי ָ הְ ִבּ
׃הּ ָבּ םירִ ָגו ְ טע ְמ ִכּ
Isa 5:17
The rod of his oppressor you shattered as on the day of
Midian[‘s defeat]. 56
Isa 9:3
When they were few, indeed sparse, and strangers
there. 57
Ps 105:12
d The use of k as a quasi-nominal phrasal head (## 14–15) was cited earlier; 58 the
English use of ‘like’ as a noun is comparable (‘the like(s) of him’). This substantival k
has something in common with the approximative use, since it tends to be vague; in
rhetorical terms it serves as a “hedge,” protecting the truth value of a statement from
dismissal (cf. # 15). If in English we say, ‘He was, like, a prophet,’ we aim to protect
the claim from misapplied definitions—if he was not precisely a prophet, then he was
the like of a prophet.
14. לוֹדגָּ ה ַ ר ָבדּ ָ ַכּ הָיהְ ִנהֲ ׃וּהֹמ֫ ָכּ ע ַמ ְשׁ נִ ה ֲ וֹא הזֶּ הַ
15. ידִּ גְ ֶנ ְל דמֹע ֵ ה ֵנּהִ וְ
׃ר ֶב ָג־ה ֫ אֵ רְ ַמ ְכּ
Has there been anything like this great event? Has
anything like it been heard of?
Deut 4:32
There was standing before me something like an
appearance of a male.
Dan 8:15
[Page 205] e The temporal use of k is related to its sense either as a marker of
approximation (‘about that time’) or of correspondence (‘at the (same) time’; # 16)
and is found with the infinitive construct (# 17; 36.2.2b).
16. ח ַל ְשׁ א ֶ רחָ ָמ ת ֵע ָכּ
שׁיא ִ ךָי ֶל֫ אֵ
17. םרָ ְבא ַ אוֹב ְכּ יהְי ִ וַ
וּארִיּ ְ ו ַ ה ָמְ יר֑ ֫ ָ ְצ ִמ
םירִ ְצ ִמּ הַ
At this time tomorrow I will send to you a (certain)
man…
1 Sam 9:16
It happened when Abram entered Egypt that the
Egyptians saw that…
Gen 12:14
11.2.10 ְל
a This preposition, like the other monographic prepositions בּ and כּ , is used in a great
many ways (cf. 10.4). A variety of its senses are often rendered by English ‘to’ in its
diverse meanings. Since a number of the senses of l are represented by the dative case
in Latin or Greek or both, many grammars and dictionaries refer to, for example, the
56 Cf. kywm bywm ‘day by day’ in 1 Sam 18:10.
57 Cf. Obad 11.
58 See also khnh in Gen 41:19.